


innocence (or lack thereof)

by mcmeekin



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers in Space
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 23:50:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3187895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmeekin/pseuds/mcmeekin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say she'll be the new queen of evil. They take her childhood to make it true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	innocence (or lack thereof)

She’s six years old.

She’s kidnapped. Her memory is suppressed so that she remembers nothing before the Dark Fortress, so her birthday comes as a surprise. Ecliptor calls off lessons for the day and takes her birthday shopping on a planet near Triforia. She’s still enough of a little girl to want a crown.

Ecliptor puts it on her head and calls her princess.

 

She’s seven years old.

She asks Ecliptor about where she came from one day during her mathematics lesson. He hushes her and forces her to focus. She asks him about her locket during dinner. He sends her to her room. She accidentally calls Ecliptor ‘Father.’ He punishes her for it.

She learns not to ask questions about her past.

 

She’s eight years old.

It’s now that it occurs to her that she does not have a name. Ecliptor only refers to her as ‘little one’ or ‘princess.’ Never a name. But he does drill into her who she is, who she will one day be. She will be a commander in Dark Spectre’s forces. She will be fearsome. Entire planets will bend to her will. It takes her a while to find a name that fits, a name she can earn one day. A name fitting of a woman whose will is so absolute even stars will bend to it. She finds one meaning ‘ruler of men,’ but it does not satisfy her. She will not just rule men. She will rule the entire galaxy. Ecliptor told her so.

When Ecliptor takes her to her first Alliance meeting, someone asks him who she is. Before he can respond, she steps forward and introduces herself with all the confidence she will one day possess.

She will one day be Astronema, commander of the universe, ruler of every star in it, princess of the darkness.

 

She’s nine years old.

She learns to walk straight and fill a room with her presence. She masters spells faster than her tutors expect, becomes more forceful than Ecliptor expects, shows more promise than Dark Spectre could have dreamed. She helps Ecliptor with his battle strategies, finding ways to win he never would have thought of. She stops taking orders from Ecliptor and starts giving them. Dark Spectre gives her the Wrath Staff and puts her against other upcoming generals in the Alliance to fight for his favor. She wins consistently.

Her age ceases to matter.

 

She’s ten years old.

Dark Spectre thinks it’s time for her to get some training in the field. Ecliptor dutifully takes her to watch a rebellion being put down. They view the battle from the sidelines. When one of the natives tries to approach them, Ecliptor kills him without hesitation. She finds that she does not care.

Maybe that’s the day she became a killer.

 

She’s eleven years old.

She overhears a transmission saying that KO-35’s take-over has been postponed due to its rangers' new training protocols. Where is KO-35, Ecliptor? she asks. What are rangers?

He tells her.

Emotions do not befit the princess of darkness, but maybe a little hatred won’t hurt her.

 

She’s twelve years old.

Dark Spectre begins sending her on small errands. Question, torture, extract: simple tasks that show Dark Spectre how useful she will be in the future. She completes them all efficiently.

Measuring people’s lives in usefulness seems normal.

 

She’s thirteen years old.

She’s told to assassinate someone.

She does.

 

She’s fourteen years old.

She catches a glimpse of herself in a real mirror. She’s only ever really seen herself in the reflective surfaces of the Dark Fortress. She doesn’t look like she expects. Long blond hair, bright eyes, light face: she doesn’t look like a princess of darkness. Her reflection shows the person who she was before, someone with parents and a brother who lived on KO-35. Someone whose name she doesn’t know.

She buys a mirror and make-up and a new wardrobe. She chops her hair off, all of it, short enough to fit under a wig. Her outfit makes her look intimidating, her make-up makes her look like Astronema, and the wigs, well, the wigs makes her blend in with the rest of the Alliance. Looking less like a normal human is helpful.

Looking less like a little girl is even more so.

 

She’s fifteen years old.

KO-35 falls. She asks Dark Spectre if she can conquer the next one.

She commands her first army, leads the first charge, then watches as another planet falls to the hands of Dark Spectre.

She laughs.

 

She’s sixteen years old.

Ecliptor suggests that she makes some allies in the Alliance. Why? she asks. She’s smarter than all of them, more accomplished than all of them. More planets have fallen under the heel of  _her_  boot than Divatox’s. More lives have been lost at the end of  _her_  staff than Rita Repulsa’s. She doesn’t need allies.

She doesn’t need anybody.

 

She’s seventeen years old.

Dark Spectre charges her with making sure the rangers never find Zordon. A smile curls at her lips. She doesn’t care about Earth and never will, but attacking it with monsters and aliens just strong enough to be a challenge but just weak enough to be expendable will be amusing.

This game is going to be fun.

 

She’s eighteen years old.

The morpher feels heavier than the staff ever did.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried really hard to make it timeline accurate, but if it's not don't tell me because I worked too hard to care. They never actually said (to my knowledge) how old Andros or Karone was, but they looked literally the exact same age in the flashback. I always just assumed he was a year or two older than Karone (so like eighteen/nineteen during in Space) so that's what we're going with.


End file.
